What do agricultural workers and recreational gardeners have in common? Aside from a green thumb, they both run the risk of glyphosate exposure – chemicals in popular pesticides. Cited in legal proceedings as causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in California school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson, the active ingredients in Monsanto herbicides allegedly lead to the diagnosis. With more lawsuits on the horizon, how will this play out for new owner Bayer’s stocks?
By the end of the trial in August 2018, Johnson was awarded over $250 million in damages, but not everyone is so sure is glyphosate exposure is to blame. How could one of the world most popular and effective herbicides be responsible for causing cancer, and how have we just learned about it now? Groups like the Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute of Health, and the World Health Organizations have concluded in studies of glyphosate that it is unlikely to be a carcinogenic hazard. However, ongoing research from the National Toxicology Program has revealed in first-phase results that perhaps there is more to glyphosate, suggesting it’s the formulations that may be carcinogenic, not the glyphosate on its own.
Though even among the most reputable sources, glyphosate appears to be harmless to humans and devastating to plants – but there’s more research to come. This infographic details the state of our favorite herbicides, how they work, and what danger, if any, they may hold for us humans. Will future lawsuits decimate the herbicide industry?
